


Best Day Ever

by 26stars



Series: Fall Prompts 2020 [17]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: (read: s7 spoiler-free), But not really any later seasons, Discussions with your significant other's father, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Marvel Fluff Bingo 2020, Pet Adoption, Post-season 7, or if you prefer: flangst, references to season 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:27:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27603497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/26stars/pseuds/26stars
Summary: After finally settling down, Daisy and Jemma agree that they're ready to adopt a pet. Daisy suggests one specific shelter in the Midwest, and Jemma knows exactly why.In fact, she kind of wants to see Cal too.For the fall prompt 'omen'; also fills my Marvel Fluff Bingo square 'adoption' and the Fluff Bingo challenge prompt "How are you this cute?"
Relationships: Jemma Simmons/Skye | Daisy Johnson
Series: Fall Prompts 2020 [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931209
Comments: 13
Kudos: 46
Collections: Agents of Shield Challenges, Marvel Fluff Bingo





	Best Day Ever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Florchis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Florchis/gifts).



> Man so this started as a "can i merge a Marvel Fluff Bingo square with a fall prompt with a AoS Fluff Bingo square?" challenge to myself and here's where we ended up. I referenced this concept in a headcanon post sometime last year, and it came to mind again when looking at the prompts. 
> 
> For Florchis and her cats ;)

Jemma understood why it had to be here. Of course they could have gone to any shelter, stayed close to home, not spent the time and money driving up to Wisconsin… But Daisy had only had to ask her once, quietly suggesting that their first pet come from a specific shelter in a specific city. Jemma remembered the names from years ago, even though Daisy hadn’t talked about it since then.

And because she loved Daisy and understood the reasons, she’d agreed to the trip.

Driving from the east coast to the Midwest took an entire day, but Jemma had suggested a road trip over a flight so that they could go slower and see the sights long the way—for all her travels with SHIELD, Jemma had barely done any tourist travel in the US. Also, driving back would be less traumatizing to any animal they brought home than flying would be. They could take their time, stop when they needed…even rent a place and take a few days to just chill on the way back.

She and Daisy didn’t talk on the way there about the _other_ reason they were driving halfway across the country for a pet, but Jemma felt a thickness in the air as the miles between them and their destination diminished.

There really wasn’t anything to say though. How could someone prepare for something like this?

They spent the night in a motel, and Daisy was the one drove them up to the vet’s office that Saturday morning. They parked across the street, but before they got out, Jemma saw her staring hard at the nondescript sign on the door.

 _Winslow’s Veterinary Clinic._ With a sign on the sidewalk and a banner blowing in the wind— _Adoption day today! Free spaying and neutering_

It wasn’t quite like Daisy was trying to set the place on fire with her mind…but her stare was equally intense.

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Jemma said quietly.

But Daisy shook her head, her hands still tight around the wheel.

“I want to. I had eight hundred driving miles to change my mind. I just need one more second.”

And, sure enough, a minute of deep breathing later, Daisy’s hands relaxed. She turned off the ignition and looked over at Jemma.

“Okay. I’m ready.”

They walked across the road hand in hand, and Jemma opened the door for Daisy. Inside, a young, male receptionist sat behind a desk in a small waiting room where a group of small children was currently playing with an excited puppy while the parents finished signing its paperwork.

“Don’t rile him up too much,” the mother was warning her kids. “We don’t want him puking in the car.

“Are you here for adoption day?” the receptionist asked, looking over the desk at Daisy and Jemma. Jemma nodded, preparing to speak, but then she felt Daisy stiffen beside her.

The vet had just walked in.

“Okay, here’s the complimentary adoption package—a set of little bowls, a temporary short leash, some dog food to get you through the next couple of days…”

Jemma stared along with Daisy as the middle-aged man passed off the bag of goodies to the family, handed them a flyer with information about settling a dog into a new home, and then picked up and handed the dog to the father when the paperwork was finished.

“Bring him in if you have any concerns in the future and we’ll take great care of him,” the vet said, walking the family to the door with a smile. “You’ve made a great choice! A house is not a home without a pet!”

As Cal turned from the closing door and his eyes fell on the two of them, Jemma squeezed Daisy’s hand hard.

Cal—Dr. Winslow—smiled at them.

“Let me guess—you’re here for the same thing?”

Impressively, Daisy managed to speak first.

“My girlfriend and I think we’re ready for the next step—we would like to get a cat.”

Cal’s smile grew. “Wonderful! Follow me, and I’ll show you right to them.”

Jemma and Daisy fell in step behind him as he led them through a door and down a hall, past some exam rooms and a room that looked like his office into a long back room. One wall was full of the cubicle kennels that Jemma had seen before in pet shops, each one holding a cat or three.

“We’ve got all different ages and colors to choose from,” Cal said helpfully, gesturing down the rows. “There are papers on the outside that give the cat’s age and health and mention any special circumstances or needs. All of them are spayed or neutered, except for the kittens. If you’d like to get one out and have a little get-to-know-you time, please ask me or my assistants to help you, and we’ll take you to a room where you can sit and play with them for a bit.”

“Thank you,” Jemma said, doing her best to smile at him. “We’ll have a look.”

“Oh, you’re English!” the man said surprisedly, pausing as he turned to go. “How wonderful. How did you two meet? Here or there?”

Jemma and Daisy glanced at each other.

“On an airplane,” Jemma finally said, and Daisy smiled.

When they were alone again, Jemma tried to catch Daisy’s eye as her girlfriend looked towards the ceiling and let out a slow breath.

“You’re doing great,” she whispered, wrapping her in a quick, one-armed hug.

She kept her hand in Daisy’s as they walked up and down in front of the rows of cats. Several of them meowed and rubbed along the bars of their cage as Jemma and Daisy approached, and only one hissed. Some were kittens or not much older, most were young adults, but there were a couple of senior cats there too. One young cat was missing an eye, another a leg. A couple already had “I’m Adopted!” tags over their papers, but most of them were still waiting.

Jemma wanted to take every single one with them.

“This was a mistake,” she eventually said. “I don’t know how we’ll ever choose just one.”

“I know,” Daisy agreed. “But we should still look at them all anyway.”

“Oh, Daisy look at this one—she’d got such lovely green eyes.”

Daisy was already exclaiming over a kitten who was reaching through the bars with one paw, attempting to grab her finger. “Oh my god, how are you this cute?”

White, gray, black, orange, calico, tuxedo…there seemed to be at least one of everything available. Jemma’s heart was drawn to a brown-and-white female that seemed too cool to meow but still rubbed her face against Jemma’s hand and purred when she stuck her fingers through the bars. Daisy made the strongest case for an older, green-eyed black cat as well as the orange tabby cat sharing her kennel. The note on their paper said they had been placed in the shelter together when their owner had passed away a few months ago.

“We were only going to take two if we couldn’t stand to separate them, remember?” Jemma said, thinking of the single cat-carrier they had waiting in the car.

Daisy give her an impressive set of puppy-dog eyes. “Can you imagine if your parents died, and then you lost your best friend too?”

They kept looking at the other cats, but Jemma had a feeling the decision had already been made.

A few minutes later, she made the excuse of needing a bathroom in order to slip back out in the hall.

“I’ll find a worker on my way back and ask if we can meet the pair,” she called to Daisy as she went out.

Thankfully, she found Cal again rather quickly.

“How’s it going?” the man asked cheerfully, looking up from his computer when Jemma stuck her head into his office. “Have you found a potential winner yet?”

“Maybe,” Jemma said as she stepped inside. “But I actually came to find you because I have a rather strange request, while I’m here.”

“Oh?” the man said, cocking his head. His hair had gone more gray since they last saw him, but now he also had a soft rather than manic look in his eyes.

That was what made Jemma bold enough to do what she’d been hoping do ever since they planned this trip.

“Well, I’d like to let you in on a secret,” Jemma began nervously, wringing her hands a bit. “That girl I came here with? I want to marry her.” Even saying it out loud made her heart beat faster, and she couldn’t help but smile. “I would love to spend the rest of my life with her. I already have a ring, and I want to ask her soon. But the thing is…her parents aren’t with us anymore. And I’m kind of old-fashioned and just want to have some kind of chance to practice my speech, to tell someone how great she is and how much I love her…and you actually look a bit like her dad. So would it be all right if I tried my speech on you?”

Cal looked amused but also touched. “Well, sure,” he said gamely, standing up from his desk and coming around to stand in front of Jemma. “I don’t have any children myself, so I doubt I’ll ever get to hear that speech from a real future in-law—so we can kill two birds with one stone. “

Jemma’s heart twinged painfully at those words, but she made herself keep smiling.

“Wonderful. Thank you.”

She took a deep breath, met Cal’s eyes, and began.

“I met your daughter seven years ago, when she was a totally different person. From the very beginning, I knew she was something special. She saw the world, people, and problems differently than me. In fact, we couldn’t have been more different, but it wasn’t long before I couldn’t imagine my life without her. She and I both changed a lot over the next few years—we went through a lot of hard things, together and separately. She even changed her name at one point. I had fallen in love with her long before I admitted it, but finally I told her how I felt, and thankfully, she felt the same. We’ve been together ever since—almost five years now. And I want all the rest, for as long as we both shall live. So…would you give me your blessing? I’ll ask her no matter what you say, but I’d love to hear that you wish us the best in the future.”

Cal smiled. “Well, I certainly can’t give permission, but you very much have my blessing. It’s clear that you really love her, and I wish you two all the best in the future.”

Jemma’s eyes filled with tears rather suddenly, and she fought back against the urge to run up and hug the man. “Thank you. I hope she says yes.”

Cal nodded, offering her a tissue from the box on his desk and patting her arm. “Oh, I have a feeling she will.”

Jemma made sure to dry her eyes well and touch up her makeup in the bathroom before finding a worker making her way back to the cat room. She found Daisy sitting on the floor near one kennel though, staring at the litter of kittens inside with a pained look on her face.

“Thinking about backing down from our ‘no kittens’ agreement?” Jemma said, crouching near Daisy to peer inside too. The four little animals were all snuggled together in a pile, sleeping soundly, but Daisy wordlessly pointed to the paper on the outside of their cage. The form introduced them as five-week-old littermates, and they’d all been given “nature” names, presumably by the staff.

One was named Daisy.

Another was named Sky.

An hour later, the two of them were in the lobby again with the two senior cats crowded together in the large carrier they’d brought along, signing the adoption paperwork while being watched by a smiling Cal.

“I’m so glad those two get to stay together,” he said, gesturing to their chosen cats. “Some bonds are just too good to come between.”

He caught Jemma’s eye with a subtle wink, but Daisy couldn’t seem to look at him.

“How is your business doing?” she asked, keeping her eyes on the papers she was signing.

“Oh, just great, thanks for asking! I love this line of work.”

“I’m really glad to hear that,” Daisy said, pursing her lips. “This is a magical place.”

“I’d like to think so, too,” Cal said with a smile, and when Daisy finally straightened up, she met his eyes bravely.

“Thank you for helping us start our family,” she said, and even though her face betrayed nothing, Jemma heard her working hard to keep her voice steady. “This might be the best day ever.”

She smiled, but Jemma could see how much effort it took.

Cal looked a little confused, but he nodded, offering Daisy his hand for a shake.

“I wish you two all the best. Take good care of those girls, all right?”

Jemma took Daisy’s hand and picked up the crate in the other. “We will.”

In the car, Jemma buckled the crate into the backseat and packed their goody bag in the trunk before climbing into her seat next to Daisy. Her girlfriend was holding the steering wheel tightly again, even though she hadn’t even turned on the car yet, and Jemma reached over to put a hand on her arm.

“You did great,” she whispered. “That must have been hard.”

Daisy nodded without looking over at Jemma, pursing her lips and finally letting a few tears fall.

“I knew he wouldn’t remember, but I…he asked me before TAHITI if I would come visit sometime.”

Jemma nodded. “Of course.”

It took a moment longer, but Daisy’s head finally bowed, and she curled into the steering wheel, drawing a ragged breath that came out a shuddering sob. Jemma reached for her, and thankfully Daisy let her pull her into a gentle hold, letting the tension of the past hour out in a few minutes of tears.

Jemma had missed most of the interactions between Daisy and her parents in those chaotic months, back when Daisy was still Skye…but she could imagine the pain of reliving memories while simultaneously being confronted with what-ifs…

_What if the story had gone differently?_

Every possibility could be distilled to the simplest sentence, though:

_Then…we wouldn't be here now._

When Daisy finally calmed and was able to straighten up, she wiped her eyes and reached for the keys.

“We’ve got eight hundred miles to come up with names,” she said, nodding towards the cats in the backseat while turning on the engine.

“Yes, but remember, stop number one is the pet shop he referred us to,” Jemma reminded her, pulling out her phone to search directions to said store. “We’ll need to get them a proper kitty condo with a litter box for the backseat if they’re going to make it to their new home without going crazy first.”

As they pulled out of the parking lot, Jemma watched as Daisy cast a last look at her father’s workplace. As Daisy sighed, Jemma touched her pocket where a ring had been living ever since she’d purchased it, then glanced back at their new family members in the backseat. Both were peering through the mesh with wide, bright eyes, and Jemma thought they at least looked a bit excited.

The day might have been those cats’ _best day ever_. But it ultimately wouldn’t be her and Daisy’s, Jemma hoped. A proposal, a wedding, maybe even the addition of more family members…those days all (hopefully) were still ahead for them.

That was the thing about calling something the _best day ever_ …it was really only the best day _yet_.

**Author's Note:**

> In case it's not clear, 'omen' in this case is the black cat.
> 
> Because I'm creative like that :/


End file.
